Autonomous English Learning In Senior High School: A Humanistic Perspective

In recent years, the field of foreign language teaching shows growing interests in the concept of autonomy and many researchers have conducted large amount of studies related to autonomous English learning. The humanistic theory provides a new theoretical basis for students’ autonomous learning. The study deeply investigates students’ autonomous English learning in senior high school with the guidance of the humanistic theory.This study is based on the humanistic theory and Zimmerman’s autonomous learning theory. 400 students from Luoyang No.1 Senior High School(each grade with 100 excellent class students and 100 ordinary class students) are investigated with questionnaires to know about the students’ English learning motivation, their attitudes toward autonomous English learning and their application of learning strategies. What’s more, 12 students and 8 teachers are interviewed, aiming to learn about teachers’ cognition and attitude for autonomous English learning and their approaches to develop students’ autonomous learning ability. The research discovers some problems that exist in the cultivating process.The study employs descriptive statistics to analyze the data collected in the questionnaire. Data analysis shows that the general situation of Luoyang No.1 Senior High School students’ autonomous learning ability is relatively satisfactory. Although most of the students have strong English learning motivation, they have poor performance in their application of learning strategies. Besides, excellent class students have better performance than ordinary class students on autonomous English learning. And Grade One students do better than Grade Two students on autonomous English learning. By analyzing the information gathered in the interview, the study finds that there still exist many problems in actual practice, which are summarized into five aspects:(1) some of the students lack initiative for English learning, but they have strong instrumental motivation;(2) students have great pressure from various subjects and the time for autonomous English learning is insufficient;(3) students lack cognition about learning strategies and the effect of their autonomous English learning is unsatisfactory;(4) students rely much on teachers, so they rarely establish learning goals and plans, monitor their English learning process and evaluate their study achievements independently;(5) teachers lack advanced theory about autonomous learning to promote students’ English learning autonomy. The study indicates that the causes of students’ lacking of autonomous English learning are the traditional teacher-centered classroom teaching and the pressure from college entrance examination.Consequently, some suggestions for promoting students’ autonomous English learning ability are proposed from the perspective of teachers, students and schools respectively: teachers should strengthen theoretical study and promote their professional development, meanwhile, teachers ought to transform the concepts of English teaching and learning and stimulate students’ consciousness of autonomous learning; schools should reform the training goals system, pay attention to cultivate students’ learning autonomy and provide necessary support for teachers to develop students’ autonomous learning; students are supposed to have correct understanding of learning and their roles in the autonomous learning.